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Thursday, August 13

Cindy's Pasta Salad

Today's post is brought to you by my wonderful sister-in-law Cindy. She makes a pasta salad that the entire family is crazy about and we all beg her to bring for every summertime (and autumn and spring) gathering. Sam has been known on many occasions to have it instead of dessert.Here are Cindy's recipe and photos, just as she wrote and sent them to me, so that I could share them here with you:

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Pasta Salad from the Garden

"My family loves this salad.
It is best when you can pick the herbs right out of the garden. You can use dried herbs too but it’s not as
much fun or as pretty.

There are no hard and fast rules for this. You can add or leave out any of the
veggies. On occasion I’ve added radishes
too. While it’s a family favorite, there
is always somebody that doesn’t like some ingredient. One doesn’t like the cucumbers. The next one
says the cucumbers are their favorite but they don’t like the peppers, and on
and on.

Well, too bad! I like
it all.

Ingredients:

12 oz package of tri-color rotini pasta

1/3 to ½ cup Olive oil

1/3 to ½ cup Red wine vinegar

Fresh Garden herbs –basil, chives, parsley, summer savory,
dill

1 tsp Mustard

1 Cucumber

1 Red pepper

Small can of Chopped Black Olives

Sharp provolone cheese to taste

Stick of pepperoni – about a 4 inch piece

Grated cheese – about 2 tablespoons

Directions:

While cooking the pasta, chop the garden herbs and put them
in a small bowl. Add ½ cup of Olive oil
and ½ cup red wine vinegar and let that marinate. Stir in a teaspoon of mustard.

Cook the pasta al dente.
Drain and rinse in cold water. In
a large bowl, add the pasta, and then stir in the oil and vinegar mixture. Drain the can of olives and add to the pasta.

Now prepare and add the following to the pasta mixture:

·Peel the cucumber. Cut in half, then quarters lengthwise and
chop into ¼ inch slices.

·Core the pepper and chop into small pieces. (Remove
as much of the inside white membrane as possible).

·Thickly slice the pepperoni then chop the slices
into small bits.

·Slice the provolone cheese into small
pieces.

Mix everything together with about 2 tablespoons of grated
cheese.

If it is too dry, add more oil and vinegar to taste.

This is best if made ahead of time to give all the flavors a
chance to blend.

Notes: If you don’t have fresh basil, you can add a
teaspoon or 2 of pesto instead.

I usually start with a 1/3 cup of the oil and vinegar and
add the rest if needed. As it sits, it
will absorb some of the oil and vinegar."

Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Thanks for sharing your recipe Cindy!And thank you all for stopping by, because...

You made me laugh with your description of what people may like or not like in this salad. This is so true. (I myself don't like olives... lol) It looks quite delicious, olives or not. So I pinned it.I agree that fresh herbs must set it apart. And the pepperoni likely makes it appealing to children.Thanks to you and Cindy for sharing it. Have a great weekend!